“It is good to think of the love of Christ, that He considered us and not Himself in that His abasement, as the Scripture runs in that strain: ‘To us a Son is given, for us a child is born,’ Isa. 9:6.
He died for us. He gave Himself for us. He rose for us. He ascended for us. He sits at the right hand of God for us. Himself indeed hath glory, but together with us. And therefore when we think of the glory of Christ, think of us in Him.
When we see Him born, think He was born for me; when we see Him die, think we die with Him; when we see Him buried, think ourselves buried with Him. So in the state of exaltation, when we see Him rise, and sit at the right hand of God, think He is there to prepare a place for me.
Whatsoever He hath, or whatsoever He did, He regards us in all; therefore it somewhat obscures the glory and the love of Christ to us, to conceive that He had a self-respect in these things, when He saith in the text, ‘For this end Christ died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord of quick and dead.’
I beseech you, consider whose goods He respects in this lordship. Is it not a profitable lordship for us? Is it not for our good that He is our Lord in life and in death? And not only our Lord, but the Lord of Satan, of death, and of all our enemies.
He is Lord over all, saith the apostle, ‘God over all, blessed for ever,’ Rom. 9:5. Therefore He is Lord over sin, over death, over hell, over all that we need to fear. It is for us. Therefore our good is intended.
Though there be a redundance of glory in Christ, in all these things, yet think He respects our good. The best meditation of Christ is to think all is for us.”
–Richard Sibbes, “Christ’s Exaltation,” in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 5, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 353.
